Rethinking Gatekeeping in Pandemic-Era Journalism in Türkiye: Embodied and Subordinated Gatekeeping

This study examined how the COVID-19 pandemic affected journalistic gatekeeping by transforming newsgathering practices amid restricted mobility and intensified information flow. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 40 journalists from newspapers, television, online platforms, and news agencies in Türkiye, it analyzed changes in journalistic routines and journalist-source interactions. Building on gatekeeping theory, it developed a framework that distinguishes between the technological and epistemic dimensions of remote newsgathering. At the technological level, the study extended embodied gatekeeping from visual journalism to technology-mediated newsgathering, conceptualizing it as the technological dimension of remote newsgathering in which remote (digital) newsgathering tools (Zoom, WhatsApp, etc.) constrain journalists’ ability to observe, interact, and gather information. At the epistemic level, this constraint produced aggregated newsgathering, a source-dependent mode of information gathering based on pre-packaged and mediated materials. Moreover, these two dimensions increased source power over news flow and filtering, while reducing journalistic autonomy and authority over news production, a shift this study conceptualized as subordinated gatekeeping. The findings further showed that these dynamics collectively foster statement journalism: source-driven, statement-based news reporting that shifts journalists from curators toward aggregators. The study advanced gatekeeping research by theorizing how crisis conditions and technological mediation reconfigure journalistic practice, authority, and gatekeeping.